Because of the growing need to protect people, property, and public transportation facilities, there has been increasing demand for detectors and other instruments designed to determine the presence of various substances including, but not limited to; chemicals typically used in explosives; hazardous or toxic materials; and other substances of interest, e.g. narcotics. Various methods, techniques and technologies are being utilized to ascertain the presence of these substances (or other materials of interest) including those based on vapor detection. Vapor detection technology capable of detecting very small (i.e. trace) amounts of substances, and a number of detectors (and other instruments) have been designed to use vapor detection, e.g. an Ion Mobility Spectrometer (IMS) is a type of detector that utilizes this technology. In general IMS is a simple, gas-phase ion separation technique in which ions are formed, manipulated, collected, and measured. Because of IMS's good sensitivity, low power requirements, and its ability to operate at atmospheric conditions, IMS has gained wide acceptance—especially in its use in field-portable trace chemical detectors.
Since this technology is widely used, and since the instruments (or other devices) utilizing this technology play an increasingly significant role in law enforcement, anti-terrorist, and force protection endeavors, it is vitally important that this detection equipment (or systems) be available for use, and that the user has a high level of confidence in the equipment's (or system's) performance. Generally, such confidence is achieved by calibrating the ion mobility spectrometer or other similar detection instrument in order to maintain the instrument in a tuned condition. However, many of these instruments require the use of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) traceable methods (e.g., the use of NIST approved standards may be required to validate the calibration or, possibly, the reliability of the detection instrument). Furthermore, while the tasks of calibrating, testing, and/or maintaining a detection instrument in a controlled environment (such as a lab) is difficult enough, it is even more so in an out-of-doors environment. Even more troubling, is the issue that the technologies needed to field calibrate IMS detection instruments, or other technologies such as SAW or Mass Spectrometry, are not readily available to the community. Consequently, the performance of detection instrument testing and/or calibration are generally accomplished by removing the field units from service and returning them to a lab for testing and/or calibration, which may take the equipment out-of-service for an extended period, and which can be prohibitively expensive. Therefore, a need exists to provide a fast, accurate, and cost-effective method and/or system, which is capable of at least monitoring detection instrument (or other detection system) responses, and which can preferably perform any of its functions in the field.